Garment construction



Feb. 22, 1955 A. J. wENzEl. A2,702,387

GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Filed July 17, 1951 2 Sheets-Sheet l Feb. 22, 1955 A. J. wENzEn 2,702,387

GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Filed July 17, 1951 2 sheets-sheet 2 f. unf.-

United States Patent C GARMENT CONSTRUCTION Alvin J. Wenzel, Michigan City, Ind., assigner to Reliance Manufacturing Company, Chicago, lll., a corporation of Illinois Application suly 17, 1951, serial No. 237,108

3 claims. (ci. 2 97) The present invention relates to the art of garment construction and is more particularly concerned with the construction of the lining of a jacket or similar article, although the invention has other uses that will be apparent.

One of the objects of the invention is to provide a seam or seams for a lined jacket, particularly where the lining is constructed of heavy material, such that the seams will be flat, will not need pressing, and will be considerably stronger than seams constructed according to conventional practice, the above to be accomplished without materially increasing the cost of the article.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of my invention which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a lined jacket taken generally from the front but with one sleeve turned inside out so as better to illustrate the construction;

Fig. 2 is a fractional view of what may be considered as the lower left-hand corner of the jacket as seen in Fig. 1 drawn to a larger scale;

Fig. 3 is a section through a portion of the jacket and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a portion of Fig. l drawn to larger scale showing the construction of the garment from the inside in the shoulder region. It may be considered as taken from the upper left-hand portion of Fig. l;

Fig. 5 is a sectional View of the seam used for attaching the sleeve lining to the lining side panel. lt may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows along the line 5--5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view which may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged plan view of one of the lining seams taken from the side of the lining facing the wearer. As an example it may be considered as an enlarged View of a portion of the Vertical seam which extends upwardly along approximately the middle of Fig. l;

Fig. 8 is a transverse sectional view and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows along the line 8 8 of Fig. 7; and

Fig. 9 is a perspective View showing the seam of Fig. 7 taken from the opposite side of the lining, that is the face of the lining against the shell of the coat.

The invention is illustrated in connection with a mans jacket of the type consisting of a woven wool shell lined with what is commonly known as quilting. The shell may be considered as substantially conventional in construction and needs no particular description. The lining material is composed of a high strength layer of rayon tatfeta or other suitable material which faces the body of the wearer behind which is positioned a layer of a loosely felted bat of short fiber Wool backed up in turn by a very loosely woven cotton cheesecloth-type fabric. These three layers are retained in place so as to prevent shift ing of the woolen bat by means of quilting stitches, indicated by the numeral 10. Ordinarily this material cornmonly termed quilting is supplied to the jacket manufacturer in the above described condition, that is, with the woolen bat and the facing material on the two sides quilted together.

Common practice in making a coat lining from such quilted material is to cut the material in a desired fash- 2,702,387 Patented Feb. 22, 1955 ion and stitch the pieces together much in the manner of the seam shown in Fig. 5. That is, the two pieces of material are laid face to face with the edges aligned and a row of stitching is run through both layers a matter of 57s to 1/2 inch or so in from the edge. The assembled piece is then opened up along the seam and pressed flat. There are several disadvantages associated with such construction, one of which is that the seam is rather bulky and will not lie smooth and flat because of the considerable quantity of material directly behind the seam. Usually the material at the seam is a matter of three times or so thicker than that found elsewhere. The pressing operation which is necessary consumes time and requires equipment and is, therefore, an operation it would be well to eliminate if practicable. Further, the bunchiness of the seam is unattractive as well as uncomfortable and also there is a certain unattractiveness associated with the fact that the quilting pattern of adjacent pieces cannot match, and this is particularly apparent since these pieces are brought directly together with no intervening piece.

ln the figures of the drawing the shell or exterior portion of the coat is indicated generally wherever it appears by the numeral 12, whereas the lining is indicated generally by the numeral 14. In these gures the lining facing material, which may be a hard nished rayon twill fabric or any other suitable cloth, has been designated by the numeral 16, the loosely felted wool bat is indicated at 18, while the extremely loosely woven cotton cheesecloth type material behind the bat is indicated at 20.

In formig a seam according to the present invention along a line where two similar pieces of quilting are brought together-a seam of this type being indicated on a large scale in Figs. 7, 8 and Q-the two pieces of quilting are spread out ilat with the contiguous edges abutting. A strip of straight cut strong, tough, woven tape 22, preferably with its edges folded under, is placed beneath the abutting quilting edges so that it straddles the line of juncture of the quilting pieces. This tape is aporoximatelv 7a inch wide. A second tape 24 of corresponding width is placed over the line of juncture in alignment with the rst tape. This second tape is formed preferably of the same material as the lining facing material 16 and istbias cut at approximately 45 degrees. The edges of the second tape 24 are folded under as are the edges of the straight cut tape 22. With the pieces in the above arrangement, they are then run through a double needle sewing machine with the needles set about inch apart so that each needle sews a line of stitching 26 about 1A@ inch in from the tape edges. This stitching passes through both tape layers and the quilting material.

The quilting material is, therefore, tightly bound between the tape layers along lines spaced far enough from the raw edges to prevent the edges of the quilting material from pulling out or frayiing. The straight cut tape at the back of the lining can be as strong and tough as desired while the bias cut tape, because of its resiliency, will lie flat and smooth.

Because the strip of bias tape visually separates the two pieces of quilting material, the fact that the quilting design does not match is less apparent. The thickness ol the seam is of course not appreciably greater than other portions of the lining and, therefore, no bunchiness results. Also, it has been found that a seam constructed in the above manner is somewhat stronger than the conventional seam and, as a further advantage, it needs no pressing.

At other portions of the garment the same type of seam is preferably used excepting that as in Figs. 3 and 6 there are certain seams where the lining is joined to the shell. At these places the edge of the quilting material abuts the edge of the shell material, these edges then being joined by two rows of stitching and top and bottom tapes just as in instances where two pieces of quilting are joined. The only exception in the garment shown is the seam which joins the sleeve liner to the body portion, shown in Figs. 4 and 5. Because of special problems encountered at this point, notably those due to the fact that the onderarm portion of the sleeve joins the body portion at an acute angle, the conventional seam is perhaps as good or possibly preferable.

Although in the above description of a preferred embodim'entof my'inven'tion'"certain dimensions have been vegiven, it--will beappreciatedthatthey are illustrative only and are related to the specific garment shown.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new randiusefl and'desireto-,secure byf-Letters-,Batent ofthe fUnitednStatesis'z l ig 5 Asan 4articlefof'manufacture,,a lining for a coatililre'garment'consisting ofV several pieces of lining mate- 'rialhaving face and back sides; contiguous members-'of Asaid pieces having their edges abutting and -the 'lines' of Y 'juncture thus formed lying along 'the center linesof woven ,tapesplaced in alignment against said face and back sides, fthe whole being secured together .by lines of stitching on feach side of said lines ofl juncture, said linesl of stitching @passing through `said face and back'tapes andthe lining materiah .said back' tape consistingofg a strong woven :'stizaightfcut tapesandrsaid' fa'ce tape being biasA cut at 2.*A1g`arment comprised of; a' shell and; a lining, said lining'beiug formedfofxindividual pieces seamed together --Jand to, said shell, said lining pieces being comprised of a "loosely felted that, quilted between wovenV facing and "."backjng materials, at least some `of said seams comprising lining pieces or lining and shell pieces disposed in'edge abutting relationship to form lines4 of juncture therebetween, stripes of strong lstraight-cut woven tape under- :lyingsaid lines of` juncture' and disposed against said backinggstrips of bias-cut woven tapes in alignment with said straight-cut tapes and disposed against said facing, and rows of stitching extending Yalong lines near both edges of said bias-'cut tapes, said stitching passing through said fbias-cut ta'p'es, s'aid straight-cut tapes and said intervening lining or shell pieces, whereby the seams will be at and ismooth,v.said..stit :hing will prevent fraying `of the edges of said lining and shell pieces, said straight-cut tapes will contribute great strength Fito the seams, and said biascut tapes will have suicient resiliency to avoid puckering on the facing side in the region of the seams.

3. A seam for securingtogether pieces of garment lining material having a face side and a back side and disposed with their contiguous edge'siin 'abutting relationship to form a line of juncture comprising, a strip of strong fstraight-cut'woven tape underlying `said line of juncture and disposed-againstthe backs of said pieces, a strip of region of the seam.

477,341 Symington et al.. June 2l, 1892 *1,282,528 Biggs Oct. 22, 1918 1,421,131 Abrams, June :27, 1922 2,056,068 Jones Sept. 29, `1936 

